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| Needed: Common Minimum Programme | | Cong-NC Relations | | Rustam
JAMMU, Dec 17: One of the main reasons for the Congress' woes and miserable plight in Jammu & Kashmir is its failure to assert and establish that it is an equal partner in the state government, notwithstanding the fact the NC is in the driver's seat. If the NC has 28 legislators in the Legislative Assembly, the Congress is also not a microscopic minority. It commands the support of no less than 20 MLAs. The fact of the matter is that the NC, which has been behaving as if it is engaged in a single-party rule, cannot survive even for a moment without the active support of the Congress party.
Had the Congress asserted its authority from time to time, its plight would not have been as pathetic as it is today and it would have not only strengthened its hold over its constituency but would have further expanded its support-base in the state. If nothing of this sort has happened, the Congress leadership is itself responsible for it.
Indeed, the Congress has displayed political immaturity by not managing the NC. The NC leadership has fully exploited the Congress leadership in the state and at the centre and has led everyone to believe that the only role of the Congress in the state is to endorse cheerfully all the decisions of the NC and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who could be described as an autocrat and a politician who doesn't digest any dissent, even if very genuine.
It is not a secret that Omar Abdullah takes policy decisions unilaterally and made them public without taking his ally on board. Take, for example, the Chief Minister's decision on AFSPA and his government's decision on registration powers hitherto exercised by the judiciary. The situation has climaxed to the point that the Chief Minister first takes policy decisions and then informs his ally. He has refused to learn even after almost three years of heading a coalition government. It is an entirely different story that the chief Minister says day in and day out that the coalition is functioning well and that it is imperative that this coalition should be strengthened. This is nothing but a taunt, taunt in the sense that the Congress has no say whatever in the government, notwithstanding the fact that it has its ministers in the Cabinet.
It is generally believed that these Congress ministers are working in tandem with Omar Abdullah overlooking the Congress' short-term and long-term interests. There is hardly any Congress leader and worker who have high opinion about the Congress ministers. In fact, the Congress leaders and workers have been accusing the Congress ministers of letting down them to remain on the right side of the Chief Minister for "purely personal reasons". They are so angry with certain Congress ministers that they are holding them responsible for the rise of a situation that has scuttled their demand for rotational chief minister.
Now that it is almost clear that there would be no change of guard in the first week of January 2012, it is time for the state Congress leadership to persuade the Congress high command to formulate a common minimum programme so that the unaccommodating and dictatorial NC leadership is kept under check and the state administration works for the overall development of the state, and not just the already rather over-developed Kashmir Valley. The Congress has to do some damage control exercise on the crucial issue of relationship with NC taking into consideration the fact that the NC takes decisions on contentious issues taking the Congress for a ride, thus lowering its position in the eyes of its constituency. The perception that the Congress is no more than B-team or C-team of the NC has to be removed and this can be done through a common minimum programme stating that the NC under no situation would go beyond the confines of the common minimum programme. |
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